Cinemark Holdings, a motion picture exhibitor, uses its 16-theater cinema in Allen, Texas near its Plano headquarters to test new technologies, and HVAC is no exception. Cinemark operates 486 theaters with 5,595 screens across 40 U.S. states and 13 Latin American countries. The company seeks economical HVAC operations particularly in high-energy-usage climates. Energy savings, dehumidification and occupant comfort are chief criteria.

At the Cinemark Allen 16, a Daikin Rebel 7.5 ton commercial packaged rooftop system was tested against two other name-brand rooftop units for a year-long trial. The Daikin Rebel unit was installed in February 2013 with a heat pump/gas configuration to serve one theater. "The unit was submetered and tied into Cinemark's building automation system (BAS) via the MicroTech III controls on the Rebel unit," said Robert Teetsel, national accounts manager with Daikin Applied.

"Maintaining low humidity levels is important to this customer given the variability of occupant levels in a theater. Using the single zone, variable air volume (VAV) approach, we were able to provide low humidity levels while reducing energy costs," said Victor McBride, Daikin Applied representative with HTS Engineering in Dallas.